Wednesday, December 9, 2020

'Tis the season for staff performance appraisals

"Staff performance appraisal season is now upon us but as communicated by the Provost on November 12, there are some changes to this year’s process," says a memo from Human Resources circulated to staff earlier this week.

"For this year, you can choose between a normal process (with the completion of the Staff Confidential Appraisal Form) or an abbreviated process involving a performance conversation with your Manager (without the completion of the Staff Confidential Appraisal Form)."

"With either process option, your performance rating for 2020 must be no less than your average performance rating over the previous three calendar years," the memo continues. "With department head approval and documented rationale, Managers may award their Staff with a performance rating higher than the minimum."

The following timeline applies to this year’s process:

• December 2020 to January 15, 2021: Staff members advise their Manager which of the two processes they would like to follow, and Managers schedule performance conversations with their Staff;
• January 18, 2021 to February 12, 2021: Staff reviews, documents, and prepares for a meaningful discussion with their Manager, including highlights of accomplishments and goals, and Managers conduct performance conversations with their Staff, including the completion of the confidential appraisal form for those employees who elect that process;
• March 12, 2021: Final date for performance rates to be submitted to Human Resources.

“While these dates are the formal University dates, your own department may have adopted variations within this timeline but the March 12 deadline is firm to enable the calculation of merit increases effective May 1, 2021,” says the HR memo. “Please check with your Manager to confirm your timeline.”  

Performance appraisal information and forms are available on the HR website, including Frequently Asked Questions. Additional resources include:

• Preparing for the appraisal meeting
• Painless performance appraisals
• Guidelines for completing the form

Policy 5 – Salary Administration, University Support Staff can be reviewed on the Secretariat’s website. This site contains all relevant policy information about the administration of the salary program, as well as the previous years’ salary scales.

Q and A with Dr. Christopher Taylor, Black Equity Strategist and Anti-Racism Advisor

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Faculty of Arts website.

Christopher Taylor (Department of History) was appointed Black Equity Strategist and Anti-Racism Advisor in the Faculty of Arts by Dean Sheila Ager this fall. The position was established in response to urgent calls for the University and the Faculty to take action against racism, and particularly in this context, anti-Black racism. Dr. Taylor participated in this Q and A to speak about his new role.

Tell us about your dual role as Black Equity Strategist and Anti-Racism Advisor.

First of all, working on equity and anti-racism are two different but parallel things. The anti-racism piece is looking at the system, changing it, confronting it, challenging it. The race equity piece is about what we’re doing for the Black students already in the weeds of the system.

On the Black Equity Strategist side, I’m focused on Black students and how we make their experience much better. Specifically, what can I — who identify as a cishet (cisgender and heterosexual), able-bodied, Black male — do to help these students? How do we ensure they have an experience that is much more fruitful and beneficial for them? For example, if they want to get into co-op or have mentorship opportunities, what kind of conversations are we having about what we can offer them? What can I do to help them graduate and prepare for a future beyond UW?

Anti-racism is fundamentally about challenging and changing structures and systems, including policies, practices and procedures. For example, how do we shift away from how we currently present curricula? How do we shift away from euro-centric epistemologies? How, and whom, we hire?

How are you collaborating with and supporting Black students in Arts?

First, I have to give credit to a Black student for even bringing me into this space. She came to my office when I’d been at Waterloo for just a week to talk to me about what’s happening. I found that if you have a connection with students, if you have a good working relationship with them, you can really get the pulse of what’s happening in a particular institution.

One of the big things I do with students is expose them to the system, particularly the Black students in my classes. And I say to them, look, I’m not going to tell you how you should be, but I do want you to see how the system works and how you can decide what you want to do to navigate it, accept it, or change it. That’s what I want to do with Black students: support them academically and professionally.

In another area, I would say that, unfortunately, we have is a lack of resources for supporting the mental health of Black students —particularly when incidents happen on campus and they feel they have nowhere else to go. So, they come to me or the handful of other Black faculty on campus. I’ve pretty much been the Black Equity Strategist for a while, and now it’s been formalized.

What are the current ideas regarding anti-racism curricular changes?

We’re still working out the particulars, but when it comes to developing a Black Studies program, Dr. Kathy Hogarth at Renison and Dr. Vershawn Young in Communication Arts are leading that project. This curricular development does fall under my purview in this role.

But it does need to be said that just because there will be a Black Studies program doesn’t mean there does not need to be a review of curricula across departments. We need to ask: What are we doing to engage more with Black topics? For example, I come from the History department: How do we examine how we teach global history? How do we reframe and include the Transatlantic Slave Trade within global history? Every major European country had a role to play in the Trade, so why is this not a part of European History? When we teach the French Revolution, where is Toussaint and Dessalines? Where is Guadeloupe in Canadian History? Do our texts include Black philosophers, theorists, and thinkers such as Baldwin and Fanon? Do we think of transnational law by including what happened in Rwanda? How do we think of Blackness beyond African Americans? Are we considering Blackness in Brazil, for instance, where there is the largest population of Black people outside of the African continent? So, when we look at curricula across Arts, we need to ask if we’re including Blackness as an add-on or as integral to human history, which it is.

Read the rest of the interview on the Faculty of Arts website.

Social Impact Fund awardees named

This article was originally featured on the St. Paul's University College website.

On November 25, a number of enthusiastic GreenHouse innovators came together to pitch their latest ventures to a panel of judges from across St. Paul’s community during its most recent Social Impact Showcase.

This newly made virtual event occurs every term, celebrating the amazing work GreenHouse students have accomplished through their journeys of social innovation and entrepreneurship. All four teams were awarded funding to support their ventures from the Social Impact Fund, which was established by St. Paul’s to support students in advancing their ideas into action. It provides students with the resources they need to engage with stakeholders and to be able to build and test prototypes with community partners as they progress.

With the rapid changes in the economy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this term’s students focused their ventures on helping consumers and startups make more educated and sustainable business decisions.

Two top ventures, Cosmelo, awarded $2,500 and Think Twice, awarded $2,000, created web browser extensions, which provided data to help consumers make more sustainable and healthy purchasing decisions. Cosmelo focuses on sustainable cosmetics purchases, while Think Twice is geared toward providing insights on sustainable clothing options.

Talent Triangle was awarded $500 for their platform intended to help startups in making more educated hiring decisions. By using the platform, startups will increase employee retention and reduce company spending caused by high employee turnover rates.

Last but not least, Green In You won the People’s Choice Award, earning $1,000 for their clothing take-back program for brands and consumers to reduce the effects of fast fashion.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for your favourite venture and congratulations to all the student innovators who participated in this term’s Social Impact Showcase. We wish you continued success on your ventures.